Northern Lights

There's an amazing website that I have grown to know and love in my time in Alaska so far: http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/auroraforecast/ This is where you can get all the information you could ever want about the auroral projections in your area; unfortunately in Juneau, this doesn't generally do you much good because it's usually overcast. However, last Wednesday the rating was at a 4.5, which is basically a guaranteed sighting, there was a fairly new moon, and not a cloud to be seen in the sky. We drove out Egan towards the glacier, as once we got past the annoyingly bright roadside lights, you could clearly see the outlines of the mountains against the night sky. "This isn't the East Coast" my thoughtful driver helpfully pointed out. "Any light you can see behind those mountains is coming from a natural source, not some far off city, and the moon is currently behind us not the mountains." Upon closer look, there was in fact a green tint to the lighting at the mountain's edges.

As we walked out on the glacier, the green lights grew even stronger. Here's a really poor representation:

As we stood and watched, the green lights grew stronger and more noticeable, with a distinct half-circle band almost directly overhead. 

They waved back and forth like fast-moving clouds, with a couple vertical strips every once in a while.

After standing out on the lake for almost an hour, we decided that they were fading and it was time to go home. Surprisingly, once we got back downtown, the aurora grew even stronger. This time there were loops of greens, reds and purples moving back and forth above us, flickering and moving about. Of course, my standard for comparison was the Northern Lights in Balto, so I guess they did a pretty good job representing them in cartoon form. 

Cross that one off the AK bucket list!!

Sunny Days in Juneau

Even though it's currently raining (sometimes sleeting) and just a sheet of grey outside, all I can think of right now is the beautiful weekend we just had. I guess that's what you have to hold onto when 80% of the time it's grey and rainy outside, like it was for most of Dad's visit. This past weekend was 35 and sunyn the whole weekend, but ski lessons were unusually stressful (read: moreso than usual), so even with the weather I was feeling particularly angsty towards Eaglecrest by the end of Sunday night. Even the Superbowl commercials couldn't cheer me up, probably because the halftime show was so disappointing. I decided that Eaglecrest and I needed some relationship therapy. I borrowed a car for the day, and headed up to the mountain around 11 on Monday, blinded by the sunlight and beautiful blue skies.

So this is Eaglecrest. Parked in that little teeny parking lot in the bottom right corner and stolled through the base lodge, where I got roped into a meeting with Tristan, Lindsay, Kirk (the owner), and ski patrol about the harnesses we were using on the chairlifts. Finally done with that, I talked Lindsay into a few runs with me before she headed home. "OK fine, but let's go out the ridge" she said. Out the ridge? This was new territory. I had done most of the terrain on the mountain already, but wasn't quite sure how I felt about backcountry on a snowboard yet. If you look at the map of Eaglecrest, follow the Ptarmigan lift all the way up, and then go kind of right diagonally along the top of the west bowl until you reach the red dashed line. Looking back, our path looked like this:

That's the Ptarmigan lift in the center left, and the mountaintop coffee hut in the center. Looking out in front of us, we could see all of Admiralty Island (fun fact: highest population of grizzly bears in the entire world), the water behind Douglas, and even out past Admiralty through to the end of the Gastineau Channel.

That's just one small piece of what we saw, but it was amazing. Lindsay skiied a run and then hiked back out, but I just hung out on the ridge for a solid 45 minutes, taking pictures and soaking in all the sun I could. Luckily, there was no wind and no clouds, a rare occurrence anywhere in town, let alone on the top of Eaglecrest. Needless to say, I didn't want to come down off the ridge. Between that, and the sunrise on Douglas yesterday morning, I think I've got enough good image memories to last me through this next grey stretch.

Team Blogging

We have two minutes until midnight to have the post count for today, but I guess since we haven't gone to bed it still counts as Wednesday right? Today I had to go back to work (wompwomp) but Dad took the middle part of the day to explore Juneau for himself. After dropping me off and meeting T-money in all his long-haired glory, Jeff, unfortunately minus his Halloween monk hairstyle, and Joan, our fearless leader, he trekked out to the the center of downtown, which happens to be a mountain. He did a lot of exploring around Perseverance mine, which is in between the commercial part of downtown and the residential heights area. Here he found an old mine shaft, which had been deemed the home of "DJ Ghost" when we took high schoolers there this fall.

It looks kind of different in the snow. Next he trekked partway up the trail that follows the old mine road. Not much of a view today, it was pretty foggy. Oh and it dumped like two feet of snow over the afternoon.

His stopping point was this really cool frozen waterfall, a great example of how cold it was here last week.

He finally shares and understands my frustration of pictures here not capturing the scale and depth of some of these sights; if there had been a person in this picture, he would be about the same height as the pile of snow just to the left foreground of the waterfall.

In the afternoon, Dad met me at work and came on our Elementary (Young Adventure Club) activity, where we went snowshoeing up the Dan Moeller trail. The snow was still coming down, so Dad nicely broke the trail for us, while our third-grade companion happily ran along knocking snow off of all the trees "so that nature would be warm!"
Met up with Tristan and Lindsay at the Hanger for "apres ski" night, which basically just meant the four of us having beers and dinner (thanks Rick!) and then met the girls at Silverbow to watch the free movie of the week, "Wandering Bones" The movie was set in the Ozarks, but was a fast reminder of what life was like in Ivanhoe, VA. Ended the night with our weekly community meeting at the house, and now it's off to bed for the both of us. Dad's tuckered out from spending the whole day outside. In the snow. In Alaska. Tough life huh?

Winter Wanderings

Busy day today! Poor Dad was still on East Coast time and wide awake at 5 am. Luckily, he let me sleep in till around quarter to nine, after he explored the town, got coffee, and watched the sun come up.

Dad turned into a giant as soon as we left the hotel, trying to show you all the perspective size of the mountains. We drove out to Auke Bay and visited Southeast Waffle Company, which makes the best waffles ever. Here's Dad contemplating the waffle he's about to enjoy:

Or maybe he's enjoying the view. Then we drove out the road, stopping to see some sights along the way. When we got to Echo Cove, Dad was dying to put his hand in the Pacific. Even though it was cold.

"Did you get that?"
We even went to Sunshine Cove, setting for the "marriage pictures" that Andie and I took together. He tested out the rope swing

and then we explored out around the point to see all the mountains that we could possibly watch the sun hit. We ended the day at the glacier, where Dad cleaned and posed on his own iceberg

Look, what a mountain explorer! Then he trekked out the rest of the way to touch the "real live glacier."

Can you see him? He's got on a red coat! We just did some grocery shopping, and later we're going to order pizza and feast with my housemates, but I think now has been designated as "nap time" judging by Dad in the chair across from me. Which I guess is ok, technically it's 10 PM for him, his usual "sleep in front of the tv" time. Back to work tomorrow, wompwomp.

Look Mom, We're Alive!

Spent Dad's first full day in Juneau today. Thank goodness the flight got in last night, cause with all the snow today he wouldn't have gotten in until probably (no lie) Thursday. Woke up early this morning and went and got Silverbow bagels for the house:

Roomies were super pumped haha. The snow just DUMPED all day, so we went up to Eaglecrest for the afternoon, and the fresh powder was incredible. Dad met some of the EC pals, and the snow stopped around 3, just in time to see a beautiful sunset through the clouds. We snapped a self-pic at the end of the day:

Thanks Mom for the fleece! and Brenna for the self-picture skillz! Dad participated in spirituality night with everyone, and then we hit the Alaskan (Bar, not Brewery, not to be confused) for some beers and chatting. Tomorrow, we explore the glacier, and other fun adventures, woo woooo!

Dad!

Dad's coming today!! Hopefully, so far so good with flights, he'll be here in an hour. Once he sees all the fun stuff I have planned, he'll probably just never leave. So it's totally a part of my dastardly plan to get everyone I love to move to Juneau so I don't have to leave...

I wonder if they have Segway glacier tours?

Breezy

I was sitting in the big blue recliner, and all of a sudden the tree in front of the porch was literally sideways, and the dust/snow was blowing so hard up our street (an interior pass on Douglas) that you couldn't see through it. This held up for about 3-4 minutes, and repeats itself every 20 minutes or so. Rethinking any decisions to go walk around on our street!

Things I learned this weekend

1. No matter how beautiful the weather outside may be, you get the best sleep when it's raining. And rainstorms aren't the same without thunder.

2. Sunrise is more spectacular over a snowy mountain

3. No matter how beautiful sunrise or sunset is, the best parts of the day are the 30 minutes before sunrise and the 30 minutes after sunset, when the sky is a slate blue, and the mountains are bright white against it. This is also the best part of doing early morning pick-ups for ski lessons, watching the sky brighten as the sun comes up (then being blinded by it as you drive down Egan!)

4. Some of the best views in town are in the Costco parking lot (^) and the dump.

5. No matter how much earlier or later it makes my day start/end, pickups and drop offs are the best part of any ORCA activity. It's where you get the best parts of consumer's personalities, and get to just hang out. It's also a great opportunity to brush up on your boy band singing skills.

6. A full moon may be incredible, and huge, and bright, but the smaller the moon it seems the more it adds to the images and scenery around it. A full moon is too bright and distracting, while a sliver can be enjoyed with other parts.

7. If you have a tendency to get lost on mountaintops, sometimes its ok to test out your safety-sleeping bag, just to see if it works.

Watch Out Palin

In our quest to take over Juneau, then the world, Andie and I have succeeded in one small piece of our plan-get a route at the Rock Dump named after us.

Bad quality picture, but we snapped this quick one in case someone takes it down before we make it permanent!

People Watching

I've always loved people watching. In the car, whenever I got tired of reading whatever book was holding my attention, I would stare out the window and imagine what the people in the other cars were thinking as they passed by our cars, our lives overlapping and intersecting for a few brief seconds. This graduated to watching people at swim meets and sports games, their reactions to key events, or perhaps distractions from the entire scene. Next came staring people down from the safety of my driver's seat, whether they be walking or driving themselves, followed closely by lifeguarding which is the best people-watching job on the face of the planet.

In college, it became more of an art form. There were prime seats in Cool Beans, Dinand and Kimball, all dependent upon what kid of watching you wanted to do. My favorites were the porches of 38 and 21 Caro, both late at night and early in the morning, but the corner Cool Beans table senior year was the best combo of gossiping, sporcling and watching to be found.

Now there's a new spot: corner table at the 2nd st downtown Heritage.

Wells Fargo outside to the left, you can watch people come up and down the street, as well as the dogs that people leave on the cobblestone patio when they come in to order coffee and get dog treats. Plus, there's a great view of the line of people that accumulates, providing ample opportunity to overhear drink orders and scheme up some new ones. And free wifi to boot. While Dolly, Rich, and Sean may not be here to creep with me, it's just enough of a distraction surrounding me to really get some thinking and writing down. And even *gasp* blogging!

Culinary Adventures

Tonight I came home on the first full rainy day in just about a month (if you know anything about Juneau, a month without rain is cause for celebration) and had a craving for tomato soup. Actually, I really just hoped that Lisa would ESP that I wanted tomato soup and homemade bread, and have it all ready for me when I got home, but this was sadly not the case. She mostly was just mean to me all night...

SO I took up the crusade and decided that if no one was going to look out for me, I was going to look out for myself. Seeking out canned tomato soup and finding none, I resorted to the next best thing: making it myself. However, we only had 2 tomatoes, which weren't even real tomatoes, but plum tomatoes. And 1/32 of a giant can of tomato sauce. And one tiny can of tomato sauce. And lots of carrots. Which led to this recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Carrot-and-Tomato-Soup-with-Basil-102204
Without garlic (duh) or basil (thanks Irish boiled food roots!)

Step one looked a little like this:

I added corn to the recipe too, cause we had lots of that. And I was adding corn to the rice because Lisa wanted me too, and wanted to tie them in together. Then I had to apply my lack of patience skills because I set the timer to roast the veggies for this:

Ian had neglected us at this point, probably because a)Conor was home and b)Lisa and I were being obnoxious, and pseudo fighting. Which translates into picture form in this manner:

Which fails to capture her dancing accurately. Or the annoying voice she was using. But fantastically illustrates the collection of colorful things on our fridge.

The next step was to turn the veggies all around so they got equally roasted. At which time I brilliantly decided to also add apples to the mix (really, what recipe doesn't need a good apple flavor?).

Lisa stopped me from adding anything else to it. Stuck it back in the oven for another 20 minutes, and started cooking the rice. Rice looks boring when it cooks, so there's no pictures of that. Sorry mom. FINALLY after what seemed like hours and hours, the veggies were done and transferred to a food processor, which is small and not so effective, and required two batches.

Nice shot of the giant can of tomato sauce there too. Once they were pureed, and I got tired of the food processor noise, everything got transferred to a giant pot on the stove

Which I then promptly decided looked like baby food, and that I wouldn't want to eat it anyways. Lisa salvaged it by adding lots more water, and some chicken stock (did you know you could make chicken stock by combining hot water and chicken bouillon? which I guess makes sense, but I never thought to do, not that I often sit around thinking "gee I wish I had some chicken stock right now") and we let it sit and simmer until everyone else got home. We enjoyed the lovely meal as a full family again, now that Ian's back from CO! While this may not have been the most brilliant or thrilling of tales, it was an experience, and a new life skill. Who knows where this explosion of culinary wonder will lead me? Most likely just to the pantry for ramen, but hey, you never know right?

Things We Didn't Do in 2011

The front page of the paper today was this picture:

We had every intention of doing the polar plunge this year. Until none of us woke up until noon. Oh well, we probably avoided a fine case of frostbite. Maybe we'll make our own plunge later this year? This was in Auke Bay, halfway across town from us; it seems more fitting to jump in the channel right down the road....

New Year, New Blog

It's that time of year again, the time for making promises that hold value for a week or a month or so, and then slowly fade out and are forgotten, only to be remembered again close to this time next year when you revisit successes and failures, and vow to try again. I've never been much for resolutions, probably due in large part to an inability to keep up my end of the bargain and also in small part due to my excessive zeal in resolution options. 

The point of this rambling is that this is the newest attempt at holding true to a resolution, and at chronicling an experience that I know will eventually lead to this exchange:

Random person/family member/acquaintance/stranger: So, what have you been up to lately?

Me: Well, I spent the past (as of yet undetermined amount of time) living in Juneau, AK

RP/FM/A/S: Wow, what were you doing there?

Me: I was doing a program called JVC Nowrthwest, where I lived with 6 roommates in an intentional community, and did a year of service.

RP/FM/A/S: So you were teaching up there or something? (this is everyone's first idea)

Me: No, actually I worked for a program called ORCA, part of the independent living center in town, programming outdoor recreational opportunities for individuals with disabilities, ranging in age from second grade to senior citizens.

RP/FM/A/S: What a great program! So what else did you do while you were there?

Me: Well.....(awkward pause for thought)....I kayaked in a glacier lake and explored the ice caves

                   I actually did this, just way the hell back in August

And that's it. That's all I can think of. I'm speaking from experience here, it's like I just forget everything I've ever done, all of our daily planned and unplanned activities, and the crazy quirks that go on in a house of 7 in Juneau, AK with little to no money, no cable, and internet borrowed from neighbors mostly for the purpose of using Pandora while cooking. Which is crazy, because we do so much here, I wish I had a video camera strapped to my head 24/7 to capture it all.

So, in the spirit of http://365project.org/ (loosely), the plan is to post a picture a day, and hopefully at least a sentence of contextual support. But maybe not. So then, when I get that brain fart of how awesome this place is, I can look back on this and remember it all. Wish me luck!